Hawkeye Reveal American Indian Culture Analysis

Hawkeye Reveals American Indian Culture
During the late 18th century, two main groups of people lived in New York, European colonialists and American Indians. Their lives were very different. Europeans considered themselves subservient citizens of a faraway country, while American Indians lived as members of nations in villages. They ate different foods, wore different clothing, and had different organization in their families. In The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, Natty Bumppo (Hawkeye) is a European man living with American Indians during the French and Indian war. Cooper is successful in using Hawkeye to reveal American Indian culture, however, the culture he reveals is not always accurate. Cooper reveals an accurate picture

Hawkeye is very racist to other American Indian tribes, such as the Hurons and the Haudenosaunee, which he calls the Mingo or the Maquas. He calls the Hurons a, “Devilish race” (Cooper, 34), and even continues to say, “A Mingo is a Mingo, and God having made him so, neither the Mohawks nor any other tribe can alter him” (Cooper 36). This statement is blatant racism. Hawkeye is not only making a broad generalization about a group of people, but is even saying that this trait is a part of the inherent nature of this group and cannot be changed. This fits with Hawkeye’s brazen attitude. He says what he thinks and does not really care how anyone else feels. However, unlike in the Judeo-Christian tradition, where good and evil are very black and white, the idea that good and bad coexist is central to American Indian culture. Therefore, this depiction of non-Delaware and Mohican tribes as inherently evil, reveals a quintessential misunderstanding of Native culturue, because they would have believed that no nation could be completely bad, as the nation would still have some good qualities. According to “Land and Identity”, “Indians to do not traditionally view spiritual powers as either inherently benevolent or inherently malign” (Land and Identity, 32). If Hawkeye were accurately portraying American Indian cultures, he would display some understanding of this idea. He would talk about the evilness of the Huron in conjunction with the idea that they could be uplifted. If Cooper had actually understood this view of good and evil, that he likely would have included the idea somewhere in the piece, instead of completely demonizing the Hurons. If this idea was included in the novel, however, it could radically change the way Hawkeye fought with Magua. In the “Epic of Dekanawida”, the author describes Dekanawida and Hayonhwatha going on a “journey to pacify Adodarhoh,” their enemy.